Four more persons tested positive for coronavirus in Prakasam district taking the number of confirmed cases to 60 in the last 24 hours.
Two of them were primary contacts of the persons who had returned from New Delhi after attending a religious congregation.
Health officials feared spreading of the disease at the community level as an equal number of persons had neither came into contact with Delhi nor foreign returnees.
Containment plan
Officials swung into action to implement the cluster containment action plan in Ekalvya Nagar, near the PVRM boys high school, and also in Perala, Podili and Gudlur. Entry and exit points were closed and police pickets were posted to prevent movement of people from and to the clusters.
In the wake of increase in the number of new cases, police personnel enforced the lockdown strictly in Ongole and in other red zone areas, including Chirala.
The total number of confirmed cases in Ongole alone rose to 32 with a 61-year-old man contracting the disease. One case each was reported from Gudlur, Podili and Chirala, Government General Hospital Superintendent D. Sriramulu said.
Podili reported the first coronavirus case with a 59-year-old man testing postive on Wednesday..
Test reports of 598 persons received on Wednesday turned out to be negative. A 30-year-old woman from Perala, near Chirala, and a 57-year-old man from Gudlur had also tested positive for the disease.
In Nellore, a deceased doctor's wife and a car driver were discharged from the COVID-19 isolation ward on recovery. So far 27 persons in Nellore were treated.
Meanwhile, para-military force personnel sprayed disinfectants at the Collector's office and red zone areas in the city, which has reported 82 confirmed cases so far.
